(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a meat cutter, a blade head and a cutter blade for meat cutters having at least one rotatable blade with at least one blade arranged in one plane rotatably secured to a drive shaft. More particularly a cutter blade foot is provided having a tooth structure pointing toward a drive shaft with projections and recesses for positioning a cutter blade in a rotationally secure manner on a drive shaft having a matching tooth structure.
(2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Meat cutters are used in meat processing for the mincing and blending of meat products, in particular in sausage production. Such meat cutters generally have an annular bowl, in which a rotary blade head having a plurality of cutter blades is disposed. The annular bowl here rotates about an axis standing perpendicular to the rotational axis of the blade head, so that the material to be processed is fed to within the working range of the blade head by the rotation of the annular bowl.
For such meat cutters, prior art blade heads have already been disclosed (cf. DE 37 35 651 A1), in which, respectively, two cutter blades are arranged in one plane. Cutter blades of this type are usually fastened with bolts or the like to driving disks, which with an internal hexagonal profile are fitted in a rotationally secure manner on a drive shaft of the meat cutter with external hexagonal profile.
In addition, meat cutters with blade heads are known on the market, in which the blades are fastened on a round shaft with the aid of keyways and feather keys. A star-shaped shaft profile having two mutually offset hexagonal profiles is also used in commercially available blade heads.
The arrangement of two blades in one plane brings advantages with regard to the concentricity. Since blade heads in meat cutters rotate at very high speeds, it is fundamentally advantageous to prevent imbalances, for which purpose two mutually opposing blades in one plane are normally used.
In traditional cutter blades of the above-stated type, the shape of the blade feet and the fixing thereof is problematical since, as a result of the load imposed by the blades in the acceleration or processing of the material present in the meat cutter, enormous forces and ensuing stresses can arise. These problems and measures for solving these problems are described, for example, in printed publication DE 10 2004 023 644.
In all known cutter blades, the nature of the fastening, for example by means of blade bolts, to axially adjacent driving disks with respect to the complexity involved in the assembly and disassembly and the diversity of the parts. Moreover, the use of such blade bolts or the like gives rise to a potential danger in the assembly and disassembly of the cutter blades.